watch the movies from Bravo's 30 Even Scarier movie moments

While there were some good performances (including ones by John Leguizamo and Simon Baker) and excellent special effects, this film did little to advance the story nor make you care about the survivors. Watching it on its own, you can enjoy the film for what it is. If you connect it to the series of films, this one is the weakest in terms of social commentary and characterization.

No real scares here for me, though some wonderful zombie effects and blood letting.

4 out of 5 stars

This is a cult classic film, but honestly I’ve never understood the whole obsession with it. This cheesy film features some bad acting and bad stop action animation. I don’t understand how anyone could find this scary, though some of the make-up is rather disgusting.

3 out of 5 stars

This 2005 film while technically a horror film, appeals to me more as a film about the separation of church and state, and how medicine and science is unwilling to accept things they cannot define or explain. To me the scariest aspect of this film is that this was based on a real story, and that faith was put on trial and lost. There were some incredible scenes of possession in this film that were made more incredible because they were created by the actress herself and were not CGI effects. Her ability to contort her body was unbelievable at times.

5 out of 5 stars

This 1984 film starring Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton is based on a Stephen King short story. I don’t know how close it is to the original story. The narration begins with a child telling the story, but is forgotten part-way through the film. The premise is fine, but you can’t dwell too much on how the children have survived without adults for what appears to be a while. The scariest bits of this film deal with intentional infliction of bleeding. While the scene mentioned in wikipedia is scary as Linda Hamilton is cut on screen, more disturbing for me was when the Amos character carved into his own chest to make a blood offering before his sacrifice. Also disturbing was the initial accident that brought Hamilton and Horton’s characters in contact with the children.

4 out of 5 stars

This 1996 had Mark Wahlberg playing the bad boy to Reese Witherspoon’s tempting good girl. While the characters and plot have been seen time and again, this film delivers a better sense of the terror than most. Wahlberg’s character seems likeable at first, but as the movie goes on you realize how unbalanced he really is. While wikipedia noted that the scene where he induces injuries in himself to blame the father (William Peterson, now of CSI) as the scary moment, for me it was when he was following her through the school watching her. There were definitely some things that didn’t work for me in this film, like the non-chalance of the younger brother toward the actions he took in the climax of the movie, and how Wahlberg roped his roommates into the climax. The dynamic between Amy Brenneman’s character and Peterson’s and Wahlberg’s also seemed unbalanced at times, as though the writer kept changing his mind about how solid their relationships were. Still a good film, especially for teens who don’t believe their parents when they advise them not to go out with older kids.

4 out of 5 stars

Rob Zombie made a better movie in this sequel than in the original “House of 1000 Corpses” which I did not care for. This film featured excellent cinematography and some equally excellent scenes of violence and depravity. This film graphically shows true life terror as the band of escapees have their way with the innocents that cross their path. Whether it’s a bloody beat-down, a surprise splattering of brains, or the aforementioned face mask, all of these scenes add to the growing dementia of the film.

3 out of 5 stars

This 1971 Clint Eastwood film was the first I can think of that involved a psychotic woman bent on killing the man that scorned her. It was the precursor to such films as #24 “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle”, #59 “Fatal Attraction”, #12 “Misery” and “Single White Female”. This was a film about a stalker, something common today but as Clint noted in the look back documentary stalkers were talked about at that time.

Jessica Walters did a fine job as a psycho, though you really had to wonder why Clint’s character would keep going back for more after the incidents that he experienced with her. The culmination of the film comes when the stalker is revealed to be in Clint’s girlfriend (Donna Mills)’s apartment with her. Those last fifteen minutes of the film delivered enough suspense to make up for some of the lesser aspects.

4 out of 5 stars

Robert De Niro delivered a typical De Niro performance in this film as a convicted rapist out to get revenge on the attorney who failed to get him off. He was at times over the top, while at others simply chilling. This remake pales against the original black and white as it pushes the edge too far and gives too much splash over substance. Still there are scenes that deliver an emotional punch like the rape scene where Illeana Douglas thinks it’s just play as she’s handcuffed until Deniro breaks her arm and then bites a chunk off her face.

The original is much more black and white in the dealings with good vs. evil. While the remake shows that Nick Nolte’s character was far from innocent, Gregory Peck was an iconoclast of virtue in the original. It was this main difference between the films that in my opinion makes the original superior. It truly was a struggle between good and evil, whereas the remake added too many layers of subtext that masked the message it was trying to deliver.

4 out of 5 stars

This successful mix of comedy and horror works well because of the talent of Nathan Fillion (“Firefly”, “Serenity”, “One Life To Live”, “Two Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place”). While the basic premise of the film is space creatures that turn people into zombies, the overall effects and camp of this film really make it an enjoyable watch. There isn’t anything overly scary here, but there are a couple of scenes that lend to the gore of the film including the mentioned birth scene/explosion of Brenda, and a later scene where the Grant creature begins absorbing other townspeople in its quest to feed.

4 out of 5 stars

Oh my God! What an incredible experience in fear and desperation these characters go through. I am just stunned by the ending which I was not prepared for. I have to admit that because of “Jaws” I have always been apprehensive about open bodies of water ever since, and this film truly played with those fears. My parents go snorkelling and diving when they go on vacation, but you will never catch me in open water again.

While the film does reflect it’s low budget independent stylings at times, the content just blew me away earning my top rating. I’m so glad I bought this last weekend.

5 out of 5 stars